Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups
We examined patterns of affiliation within groups of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ), particularly concentrating on how short‐term spatio–temporal associations reflect long‐term relationships. Female and immature sperm whales live in stable, and partially matrilineal, social units. Two or mo...
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crwiley:10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x 2024-06-09T07:49:03+00:00 Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups Christal, Jenny Whitehead, Hal 2001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1439-0310.2001.00666.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ethology volume 107, issue 4, page 323-340 ISSN 0179-1613 1439-0310 journal-article 2001 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x 2024-05-16T14:28:44Z We examined patterns of affiliation within groups of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ), particularly concentrating on how short‐term spatio–temporal associations reflect long‐term relationships. Female and immature sperm whales live in stable, and partially matrilineal, social units. Two or more social units may move together for periods of several days, forming a cohesive group of about 20 animals. We observed that sperm whales in the eastern tropical Pacific quite consistently associated with members of their own social unit more than they did with other animals in their group with whom they did not share a long‐term relationship. There was little evidence for preferred, or avoided, affiliations within social units, except in two large and relatively unstable units. In two well‐studied groups, individuals did not show consistently favoured positions in the foraging rank relative to other members of their social unit. These results indicate the importance of long‐term relationships to female and immature sperm whales, but suggest that relationships are quite homogeneous within social units. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale Wiley Online Library Pacific Ethology 107 4 323 340 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
We examined patterns of affiliation within groups of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ), particularly concentrating on how short‐term spatio–temporal associations reflect long‐term relationships. Female and immature sperm whales live in stable, and partially matrilineal, social units. Two or more social units may move together for periods of several days, forming a cohesive group of about 20 animals. We observed that sperm whales in the eastern tropical Pacific quite consistently associated with members of their own social unit more than they did with other animals in their group with whom they did not share a long‐term relationship. There was little evidence for preferred, or avoided, affiliations within social units, except in two large and relatively unstable units. In two well‐studied groups, individuals did not show consistently favoured positions in the foraging rank relative to other members of their social unit. These results indicate the importance of long‐term relationships to female and immature sperm whales, but suggest that relationships are quite homogeneous within social units. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Christal, Jenny Whitehead, Hal |
spellingShingle |
Christal, Jenny Whitehead, Hal Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups |
author_facet |
Christal, Jenny Whitehead, Hal |
author_sort |
Christal, Jenny |
title |
Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups |
title_short |
Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups |
title_full |
Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups |
title_fullStr |
Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups |
title_full_unstemmed |
Social Affiliations within Sperm Whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) Groups |
title_sort |
social affiliations within sperm whale ( physeter macrocephalus) groups |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1439-0310.2001.00666.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_source |
Ethology volume 107, issue 4, page 323-340 ISSN 0179-1613 1439-0310 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00666.x |
container_title |
Ethology |
container_volume |
107 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
323 |
op_container_end_page |
340 |
_version_ |
1801381158697566208 |